'My mother raised me with everything I needed... she is no felon': Teen girl who was snatched from hospital by a woman dressed as a nurse 18 years ago defends her abductor after she is found living with her in South Carolina

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The baby girl who was kidnapped from a Florida hospital by a woman dressed as a nurse 18 years ago has defended her abductor after she was found living with her in South Carolina.

Kamiyah Mobley, now 18, was found alive and well in South Carolina living under the name Alexis Manigo. The 51-year-old woman she long-believed to be her mother, Gloria Williams, was arrested and charged with kidnapping.

The teenager took to Facebook to defend Williams on Friday as news of the woman's arrest spread.

'My mother raised me with everything I needed and most of all everything I wanted,' she wrote. 'My mother is no felon.'

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Kamiyah Mobley, now 18, was found living in South Carolina on Friday living under the name Alexis Manigo. Gloria Williams, 51, has been arrested for kidnapping the girl from Florida

Kamiyah Mobley (left in a composite created by police) was kidnapped by a woman pretending to be a nurse (right) 18 years ago. This week she was found alive in South Carolina

The mystery of Kamiyah Mobley became a national sensation when she was stolen from her mother Shanara Mobley's arms at the University Medical Center in Jacksonville in July 1998.

Williams had suffered a miscarriage about a week before she drove the three hours from South Carolina to Florida and abducted baby Kamiyah, Walterboro Live reports

Jacksonville police said the teenager found out on Friday morning that the woman who raised her in Walterboro, South Carolina her whole life was not her real mother.

Within hours, Kamiyah was able to reconnect over FaceTime with her birth parents Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken who cried 'tears of joy' after a detective told them their baby had been found.

Williams, who also has two biological children who grew up with Kamiyah, will be extradited back to Florida and is being held without bond, according to Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams.

Kamiyah, who has graduated high school and is believed to have a steady boyfriend, was allowed to spend a few emotional moments with Williams in court on Friday.

She cried 'Momma' through the caged window of a security door after Williams waived extradition to Florida, News4JAX reports. 

Williams could face up to life in prison if convicted. 

The news came as a shock to neighbors who have only ever known Kamiyah to be Williams' daughter. They say Williams seemed like a normal person who was employed as a social worker, volunteered and attended church every Sunday.

'She wasn't an abused child or a child who got in trouble. But she grew up with a lie for 18 years,' Joseph Jenkins, who lives across the street, told the Associated Press.

Investigators are currently speaking with Williams' family to learn more about the abduction. Authorities have not yet determined Williams' links to Jacksonville. 

Tears of joy flowed freely for Kamiyah's biological parents Craig Aiken (pictured left on Friday) and Shanara Mobley (pictured right in 1998 after her daughter was abducted)

Kamiyah was allowed to speak to Williams on Friday from behind a caged window before the 51-year-old was extradited from South Carolina to Florida

Kamiyah Mobley, now 18, was found alive and well in South Carolina on Friday living under the name Alexis Manigo

A cousin of Gloria Williams said the revelation was 'brand new to all of us.'

Tesha Stephens spoke briefly with reporters on Friday outside the Walterboro home where Kamiyah was raised. She said she didn't know how the young woman discovered her past.

'Right now she's holding up... She's processing everything and she's probably going to have to take this day-by-day,' she said. 'This was something brand new to all of us.' 

The sensational news solves a cold case that accumulated more than 2,500 tips in search of the girl and captivated both the city and the country for more than a decade.

The case broke thanks to a tip received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children last year that led Jacksonville police to South Carolina. The source of the tip has not been revealed.

They found an 18-year-old woman with Kamiyah Mobley's birth date but a different name and quickly discovered that fraudulent documents had been used to establish her identity. 

A DNA sample from the teen was taken and submitted to a crime lab, where it was matched with the original newborn DNA taken the day Kamiyah was born. The test confirmed the teen was, in fact, Kamiyah.   

Gloria Williams, 51, (left) has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and interference with custody. Pictured right is a sketch police released of the suspect after the kidnapping 

Williams was arrested on Friday morning at her home (pictured) in Walterboro, South Carolina. Kamiyah was not present at the time. She was raised there with Williams' two biological kids

Police said Kamiyah (right) found out on Friday morning that the woman who has raised her Gloria Williams (left) is not her real mother

Sheriff Williams said Kamiyah appears to be in 'good health' and a 'normal 18-year-old woman'. 

He said she first 'had an inclination' a couple of months ago that she may have been involved in the national kidnapping case in some way. Authorities didn't say why she suspected this.

Police said Kamiyah plans on staying in South Carolina for the time being and they don't know if she plans to reunite with her biological family.

'She's taking it as well as you can imagine,' he said. 'We have victim's advocates up there, she has a lot to process, a lot to think about.' 

Gloria Williams was arrested on Friday morning at her home. Kamiyah was not present when she was taken in to custody. 

Court records show that Gloria Williams has an extensive criminal record and has been found guilty of writing fraudulent checks and welfare fraud. 

She was also charged with a minor crime for disturbing the peace two months after Kamiyah was abducted, Jacksonville.com reports. 

The sheriff said Kamiyah had lived at the home with Williams and other members of her kidnapper's family. There are no other suspects at this time.

 Kamiyah, pictured as a small child, was raised by Gloria Williams in South Carolina

Gloria Williams, pictured with the teen, was arrested at her home in Walterboro, South Carolina, early Friday morning

It was a tip last year that led Jacksonville police to South Carolina, where they found an 18-year-old woman with Kamiyah Mobley's birth date but a different name

But Kamiyah's father and grandmother, Craig and Velma Aiken, revealed they have already spoken to her on FaceTime, as did Kamiyah's mother Shanara, who has since had three more children. 

Craig and Velma revealed that they immediately noticed that Kamiyah looked like her father, according to First Coast News. 

'I can't wait,' Craig said of an upcoming reunion. 'It's been 18 years. I can't wait no longer.' 

Velma, 66, said her granddaughter chatted with the family as if they had known each other her whole life. 

'She looks just like her daddy,' she told The Associated Press. 'She act like she been talking to us all the time. She told us she'd be here soon to see us.'

Velma, who prayed she would see her granddaughter before the day she died, told the New York Daily News 'everyone broken down in tears' during the conversation.

She added that Kamiyah is 'well and looking good' but revealed the family has not set an official reunion date yet and don't want to rush her. 

'We lost her for 18 years,' Velma said. 'We don't want to lose her again.'  

Kamiyah's father Craig Aiken (pictured) revealed he has already spoken to her on FaceTime

Kamiyah's mother Shanara Mobley (pictured two days after the abduction) was just 16 years old when her daughter was taken from her arms

No pictures of Kamiyah had been taken before she was kidnapped, so police had to match babies to her footprints (pictured) while following leads 

It was just after 3pm on July 10, 1998 when a woman wearing a blue floral smock and green scrub pants took eight-hour-old Kamiyah in a white blanket and disappeared. 

Authorities said the woman had roamed the halls of the University Medical Center, now UF Health Jacksonville, for 14 hours, according to The Florida Times-Union. 

She had spent five hours with Kamiyah and her mother Shanara, who had just turned 16 at the time, before saying the baby had a fever. Nurses thought she was a member of their family.

It was Velma who became suspicious when she saw the woman leave with a pocketbook slung over her shoulder as she carried Kamiyah away.

'I just feel like if I would have reacted on my feelings… I could have done something,' Aiken said. 'I could have taken that lady out with my bare hands.'

But by the time the hospital staff was notified, it was too late.

Every floor and room of the hospital was searched. Police called bus and train stations and airports to look out for baby Kamiyah. The FBI became involved.

There were no pictures of Kamiyah and only grainy footage from the hospital surveillance camera of the suspect. 

Authorities made a composite to try and illustrate what the newborn looked like. Sketches were released of the mysterious woman who had posed as a nurse. 

Velma Aiken, the paternal grandmother of Kamiyah, gets a congratulatory hug from a family member on Friday

Kamiyah was taken from the the University Medical Center, now UF Health Jacksonville (pictured), on July 10, 1998 just eight hours after she was born 

The case took over the county, where women who matched the sketch were stopped in local grocery stores and babies' footprints were compared to those taken from Kamiyah when she was born.

A $250,000 reward was offer and Kamiyah's story was told on CNN and America's Most Wanted.  

Craig was in jail at the time of her kidnapping on a drug charge, according to WJXT. 

Her disappearance led to even more time behind bars when Aiken, 19 at the time, revealed he was the father - and that Kamiyah had been conceived when Shanara was 15. 

Aiken pleaded guilty and spent five months in prison, wondering if he would ever see the baby daughter he never had the chance to meet. 

Shanara, who used to cut a piece of cake and put it in the freezer for each one of Kamiyah's birthdays, received a $1.5million settlement in 2000 after suing the hospital. 

As the years passed the mother said she woke up every day knowing her firstborn was still out there - but that there was no way to reach or talk to her.

'I wonder, 'What does she like? What kind of food? What kind of colors? How smart is she? Does she have long pretty hair? Does she have my eyelashes?'' Shanara said in 2008.

Now, she may finally have the chance to find out. 

'I always hoped and prayed this day would happen. I always felt she was alive. I always felt she would find us,' said Craig.

'Now we have the rest of our lives together.'